American Championship in Lima, Peru, in March 1952, Tetsuo won the gold medal in the 400-metre, 800-metre and 1500-metre freestyle. He was a bronze medalist at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki (1500-metre freestyle), the first Brazilian swimmer to win a medal at the Olympics. Tetsuo won his heat with a time of 19:05.6, another new South American record and in the final won the bronze medal with a further South American record of 18:51.3 that would last ten years. After swimming After leaving swimming, Okamoto moved to the United States for several years, where he studied geology and business administration and started a company drilling artesian wells. He died in his city of birth, Marília, on 1 October 2007, due to heart and respiratory failure, caused by long-standing kidney problems which forced him to have frequent hemodialysis in the last years of his life. References External links People's Daily obituary 1932 births 2007 deaths People from Marília Brazilian male freestyle swimmers Texas A&M Aggies men's swimmers Swimmers at the 1951 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic swimmers of Brazil Olympic bronze medalists for Brazil Brazilian people of Japanese descent Deaths from kidney failure Olympic bronze medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold medalists for Brazil Pan American Games silver medalists for Brazil Pan American Games medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1951 Pan American Games Sportspeople from São Paulo (state)